The other day we were cleaning out the drawers of the girls' cabinet in our family room. It has games, crayons, markers, paper, blocks, animals...you get the idea. I ran across papers of drawings from just days ago as well as art they had drawn years ago. It was a handprint traced by me of Victoria's hand that made me think that I wish I had done for handprints. So, this morning after breakfast, we traced our hands all onto one sheet of paper. The hands of me and my girls.

next week's theme

behind

the wrap-up

Lisa has a round-up of photos that caught her eye in the 52Photos Flickr group you'll want to peek at. And like she said,

" again the thing that strikes me is that we all see the world so differently which is so cool "

My Mom always tells me I'm the Queen of easy recipes that look good and taste great, but are so, so easy. Be prepared to be amazed at how effortless this little bit of yumminess really is. I give all credit to Woman's Day magazine, where I found the recipe years ago.

This is what you'll be rewarded with. Well, that and a lot of ooh's and aah's from the family!

LET'S BEGIN

Allow your puff pastry sheet to come to room temperature. I use Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, it can be found in the frozen foods section, near the rolls and pie crusts. Heat oven to 400 Fahrenheit.

Place your puff pastry lengthwise onto center of your Silpat or Parchment Paper and unroll. With a rolling pin, roll out to a 12" long rectangle. Place Silpat onto your cookie sheet.

Spread the cream cheese mixture in wide strip down center of puff pastry sheet, which you've cut into 1" strips on each side. I'm using a Silpat, but Gordon actually prefers using Parchment Paper {found at grocery stores near the waxed paper} because it can be thrown away rather than having to be washed each time.

You'll now begin folding your strips at an angle across filling, overlapping and alternating from side to side. Trust me, you can do this, it's not hard to do at all and looks really fancy schmancy when you're finished.

Told ya it was easy!

Whip the reserved egg white until frothy and brush the top of your Cheese Danish. Now sprinkle with 1 teaspoon, or less, of granulated white sugar. Bake 25 minutes until puffed and golden.

Be sure to check on it toward the end of the time as each oven cooks differently. I cook in a convection gas oven and it doesn't take the whole 25 minutes when I bake the Danish and actually I may have let this one get just a touch too brown. Cool slightly.

I often make two Cheese Danish because they don't last long around here, especially if we send a few slices up the driveway to Nana and Papa. That kind of keeps my status as #1 Daughter-in-Law intact. Well, actually, I'm the only Daughter-in-Law but it doesn't hurt to share the yumminess, I always think.

And if you're lucky, perhaps your very own Mr. wRight will clean up your mess for you like mine does for me, most of the time. He's pretty awesome like that. But back off ladies, he's all mine!

styrofoam cup has tadpoles in it from Papa so the girls can watch them grow

NOTE: The original recipe used flavored cream cheese for the filling, which didn't appeal to me, but if you're that kind of girl...give it a try.

This little mini book might look familiar to you as I created it with tons of Jenni Bowlin Studio yumminess during one of my hosting weeks at write.click.scrapbook. last April. I created a mini book, and a bonus project, each day for a whole week. Call me crazy, but it sure was fun. And this is but one of the may projects I created.

So, as I was purging and cleaning and preparing my craft room for a few photographs that are to be featured on another crafty mama's blog, I came across my Life Is Great mini book and realized that I had never chosen photographs.

Last Saturday, I finally printed photos, added a bit of journaling and can finally call it complete. Because, after all, Life IS Great. So, let me share the finished project with you. Click on photos for a larger view.

Amy Sorensen has hosted this week over at write.click.scrapbook. with the theme of Field Trips and how they might inspire us to look at common things in a new way, how we might be inspired by shapes we see or colors, or, or, or.

I took the assignment of a Nature Walk, as that is something we do quite often around here. Here are a few details I wrote up for Amy's post on Tuesday with the original layout I created and here the layout is again with a little something extra.

I stitched the date with my Mom's vintage 1970s Singer sewing machine. I've been sewing much more paper than fabric these days.

The little something extra is that strip of ribbon at the bottom. It kind of throws off the dimensions, but oh well.

And here's Isabella's layout which has been further embellished with a ribbon at the bottom of the page because when I printed off the photo for her layout later the next day, I must have sized it differently and that left me with extra room at the bottom of the photo.

Into my scraps drawer I went and found the yellow paper scrap, already scallop trimmed {a leftover from my Week in the Life mini book} which still left a small space and led me to add a bit of ribbon. And that's why Victoria's layout got some ribbon, too. I didn't want her to think she has less cute stuff...they watch that kind of stuff sometimes, ya know?

And here's the B side to the pink paper, which I had originally planned to use, but didn't. I thought the muted colors would look more "nature" like, but just couldn't resist the pink for my pink girl and I'm happy with my decision.

I asked Victoria which layout she liked best, because these layouts have the same journaling, just different embellishments. She chose the greenish blue, which is the one I actually made for her. Whew. That worked out well.

I often make two {or three if it's a memory with Zach} layouts with the same design and just switch up the papers and embellishments. How about you?

Even at a very young age, and even in utero, Victoria has been a spunky, active, ever-moving, always in motion soul. I don't often take the kids to portrait studios, but obviously here I did. Of all the photos from the session, this sort of an afterthought photo of Victoria was Gordon's favorite of the whole bunch. Her, laying flat on her back. It has remained on his nightstand since the day I picked it up from the studio and she is now 6 1/2 years old. Might it be a reminder for him of her fascination with her feet and that she is able to, sometimes, slow down?

next week's themetracethe wrap-upHave you checked out this cool photo?

gift wrap

Have you ever been caught without wrapping paper for that perfectly perfect gift you found? Well, no more. Using the gorgeous flower stamp from the Victorian Summer collection, I varied the inks used each time I stamped the image along my roll of kraft paper which allowed me to choose a variety of baker's twine, specifically Orchid, Cantaloupe and Buttercream which serve as sweet, subtle contrasts to the kraft wrapping paper.

Rather than adding a bow, I stamped the same flower image and embossed it, fussy cut around the edges, and topped my baker's twine wrapped package with the flower image. As a finishing touch, I stamped "You're amazing" right onto the wrapping paper.

note card

I love the look of square cards, so I just trimmed the more common A2 sized card into a square which still makes it fit into a standard envelope without the extra postage for a square envelope. I again embossed my project with the flower stamp to serve as a background and wrapped my pennant shape with some Lilac baker's twine.

This photo really highlights the beauty of the Skipping Stones Design stamp and how plump and luscious The Twinery twine really is!

gift tags

I actually made several tags just like this one so I won't be caught empty-handed when it's time to wrap a gift. And really, cute stamps and baker's twine make everyone smile. After tying a bow, I tied yet another bow to make a more full bow using Lemondrop to embellish the tag and Cantaloupe to tie the bow.

thank you

I envision that I would have used cards just like these to place on the desk of a co-worker, back when I had a 9 to 5 office job years and years ago. Now, it's just me and myself all day long as I work to create goodies for my Etsy shop. Telling someone thank you is something that should never be overlooked...

...and to tell them just how amazing they are, everyone needs to hear that now and again! The feather stamp from the Victorian Summer set adds a classic feel to my duo-toned stamping technique.

the prize

The Twinery will be giving away a 'Colorful Bunch Sampler Pack' (retail $20)

to win | visit each blog on the hopand leave a commentdeadline | comments one each blog must be left by 11:59 pm EDT, Friday, May 25th

Welcome to I Love It All

Hi, I'm Monika... I’m a wife, mom and crafty business owner grateful for my lovely life and all of its extraordinarily ordinary moments. I create home decor prints + eclectic mini books and travelers notebooks for my boutique ILOVEITALLshop.com